Plastic cladding treatment

[Eric]

I have been using Mother's Back to Black on my plastic body cladding and bumpers. It works fairly good but does not last much longer than a few washings. I have recently tried a product called Black Wow, it's a silicone based product that can be put on any color plastic. I was quite happy with the look after application as it made the plastic look new, and so far it's been through several rain storms and car washes and still looks the same. One caution though since it is silicone based they warn not to put it on anything you step on like running boards and such because it's so slippery, I was not aware of this when I bought it so I stil have to use Back to Black on the running boards.

A tiny bottle of this stuff is $23, so it's not inexpensive by any means. However the amount you need is very little and after doing all the plastic exterior on my 05 it looks like I can do this 4 or 5 more times.

 

[ELVATO]

Yea, Black Wow is awesome. Meg's Ultimate Protectant is also pretty good, and it costs 10 bucks at Autozone.

 

[Eric]

I use the Meguiars Ultimate Protectant on the interior, but did not on the exterior, have used the Back to Black product on the exterior. I do like the UV block it provides.

 

[Eric]

Here is an update on the Black Wow, it held a nice dark black color for about 3 weeks then I noticed it starting to lighten up some. I just reapplied the product for a second coat at the 4 week mark, it took much less product to get the plastic nice and black though. For comparison I used Mother's Back to Black on the running borads and I had to apply that twice in the same time frame.

So still have not found that perfect plastic treatment but so far the Black Wow does seem to last the longest. I have read about a product called Carsystem Refinish Restorer, anyone out there give it a try?

What is interesting, the cladding on my 05 XLT was fairly faded looking when I bought the truck, but the driver door cladding was way worse than the rest of the pannels has blotchy grey appearance. I have seen numerous other XLT's on the road with the same issue where the driver door cladding fades more than the rest, got to wonder why that would be.

 

[ELVATO]

Crappy plastic. I actually thought the different fading plastics was only an 03 issue since I think that's all that was included in the TSB.

Black Wow is pretty much as good as it's going to get as far as protectants goes.

You could get something called Showroom New Restorer. It's a dye, so it's a more permanent solution. I've heard good stuff about the black one, though not sure how the grey one turns out.

 

[Eric]

I did a test on one pannel using the Meuiars Ultimate Protectant which I had never thought of using on the exterior. It leaves a satin shine whereas the Black Wow is more flat looking. I will give it a test run to see how it lasts. I love Megs for the interior though.

 

[Puchichi]

I use Black Magic silicone. And, it satisfies my need at a cheaper price. The only thing was i did put some shine on the runningboards & my father-in-law nearly bust his rump by loosing his footing exiting the rear passenger side of the truck.